HC 101H, Honors College World Literature: The Narrative Subject, the Subject of Narrative

Bishop, Fall '00 | 314 Chapman | (541) 346-0733 | lmbishop@oregon.uoregon.edu
Office hours:

Monday, 1:30 to 3:30 pm

Tuesday, 11:30 am to 3:30 pm (later by appt.)

Open House: Friday, 3:00 to 4:00 pm
Class hours: Tues, Thurs. 9:30 am to 10:50 am

Class listserv | Requirements | Texts | Grading | Reading schedule | Iliad readings |
Paper format instructions | Notes on The Consolation of Philosophy

In this survey of ancient and early medieval western literature, we will concentrate on narrative (plot and genre) and identity (character), and our role as inheritors of a western tradition. We will assess our texts formally (the "form" of a text, its structure, its beauty) and contextually (the work's generative matrix with an understanding of how it got into our hands). Our interest will be particularly drawn to recognizing and evaluating narrative forms--epic, romance, dialogue and drama--and analyzing the cultural stock we place in the continuity of these forms. We will continuously ask the question, how does literature construct meaning?

Your own writing is, of course, both formally and contextually situated. HC 101H includes writing analysis (composition) with the study of literature. In order to evaluate the formal elements of your own writing, please be advised of the university's Web-based composition resources. Also check our this site for a nice review called "Revising Prose." (Back to top of page)

The following texts have been ordered at the University Bookstore: Gilgamesh (Stanford UP), Iliad (trans. Fagles, Penguin), Aristotle's Poetics (Penguin), Women of Troy (in 10 Plays of Euripides, Penguin, 1998, or a translation of your choice), Consolation of Philosophy (Penguin), Aeneid (Random House), Beowulf (Seamus Heaney translation, National Book Award winner), Silence (Michigan State UP). You may be able to find these particular editions at Smith Family Books or other bookstores in Eugene (there are plenty). We'll also read the Biblical Book of Job, chapters 1-2 and 38-42, for which you may use any Bible you can find (I'll also have a copy you can xerox; if you use a Web-based version, please print it and bring it to class). (Back to top of page)

Class listserv: We have an electronic discussion list, <histlit@lists.uoregon.edu>, to which you can subscribe yourself IF you haven't already received a "welcome message." To subscribe, send a message to majordomo@lists.uoregon.edu with the following message:

subscribe histlit
end

and don't forget the "end". Any message sent to HISTLIT goes to every subscriber. Please note--if you hit "r" to "reply" to a message on HISTLIT, your answer will be sent to every subscriber. If you have an issue you wish to discuss privately, please use the individual's e-mail address (or, if you're in the dorm, walk down the hall). Other issues of "netiquette":

• list messages are public property, insofar as the list's medium is owned by the University of Oregon. At the same time, usufruct (the use of what an individual has written) belongs to the writer. Your subscription to the list implies that your words are meant for others on the list, but others cannot use your words OUTSIDE of the list. In other words, one listmember should not distribute another's message outside of the list membership without permission from the original writer(s).
• please use the list for class-related purposes only;
• ad hominem attacks will not be tolerated, while honest disagreement is part of the intellectual life;
• building on another's message is more salutary than finding fault;
• remember that irony does not translate well on electronic media.

Want to read a couple of my postings to HISTLIT, 1998-99? Here.

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Requirements

• Response papers. You'll write five one- to two-page response papers this term; each will answer a particular question about a text (or you may devise your own). These are formal papers in the sense that spelling, grammar, and thinking count; at the same time, these are papers in which to try out ideas, to experiment and challenge yourself intellectually. Here are the steps for writing response papers:
  
  1. Before Tuesday, choose a question, an issue, a topic from the list in this syllabus or devise your own.
  2. Before Tuesday midnight, free write, meaning that you make notes, construct an outline, or write a complete draft (this may be handwritten)--whichever method you habitually use, or a method you're trying out for the first time. Then PUT AWAY whatever you've written for AT LEAST six hours.
  3. REVISE what you've written by constructing an essay from your notes or outline, or by rewriting your original draft. Revise as much as you like, but make sure that the final copy you hand in is TYPED.
  4. Hand in BOTH your notes/outline/draft AND your finished copy, stapled together.

  I will read these papers, comment on them, and grade them pass/no pass. Normally, a no-pass paper lacks a thesis and/or contains egregious writing errors. Five passing papers will count as a 4.0, four as a 3.0, three as a 2.0, two papers as a 1.0, and one paper counts as zero, as do no papers. No-pass papers may be re-written, but MUST be handed back to me within a week. You may also request that I give any response paper a "grade," meaning the grade it would get were it a graded assignment. I would "grade" the paper in order to give you an idea of how grading works on formal papers, but the grade won't "count," per se.

• Graded formal papers. Two four- or five-page papers, each of which will use an observation originally explored in a response paper. Paper 1, due Thursday, Oct. 19, will treat Gilgamesh, the Book of Job, or (for the adventuresome) the Iliad. Paper 2, due Tuesday, Nov. 14, will treat the Iliad, Women of Troy, the Aeneid, the Consolation of Philosophy, or Beowulf. Note paper due dates: papers must be turned in on the date specified. The first paper may also be rewritten (due one week after returned, graded), with the two grades averaged for the paper's final grade.
  
• Writing portfolio. During the term, keep all of your work in this portfolio; at the end of the term, you'll write a reflective essay about your writing, using your portfolio in order to include specific examples of your writing's strengths and weaknesses, and to list what you hope to continue to improve in your writing. You'll give me your writing portfolio, with reflective essay, along with your final exam. Completing this assigment contributes 10% to your final grade.
  
• Final exam. Cumulative, essay, take-home exam, due no later than Friday, December 8, at 10:15 a.m. (Back to top of page)

Extra credit

Informal study groups. The learning community of the Honors College affords you an opportunity to test your ideas and grow intellectually in a supportive yet challenging environment. We'll discuss the texts plenty in class, with conversation often continuing on HISTLIT.

To facilitate conversation even further, I will be providing question sheets on eight consecutive Thursdays for the following Tuesday's class.

• Between Thursday and Tuesday you may discuss the question with at least one other person, and preferably more, at one time (you arrange the time).
• Everyone who has discussed the question at one time (in one sitting) may, with the rest of the group's consent, sign the paper, but you may get credit only once for each week (of course you'll benefit from chatting about the text any number of times, and any question is fair game for HISTLIT, too).
• Finally, you must include on the sheet at least one further question (but as many questions as you wish) inspired by your conversation.

To get credit, you must turn in each sheet at the beginning of the appropriate Tuesday class. If you complete a sheet for each of the eight weeks, you'll receive 3 points extra-credit on your final grade; for seven, 2 points; for six, 1 points; for five, 0.5 point.

Grading

The response papers constitute 20% of your grade; each formal paper, 27.5%; reflective essay, 10%; and the final exam will constitute 15% of your grade. Please note the University's "grade point value" system effective 9/90, as I will be using this system (unless otherwise noted):

A+ = 4.3	B+ = 3.3	C+ = 2.3	D+ = 1.3
A = 4.0	B = 3.0	C = 2.0	D = 1.0
A- = 3.7	B- = 2.7	C- = 1.7	D- = 0.7

Note that a grade of "C" is, according to academic regulations, "satisfactory," while a "B" is "good." That means that a "B" is better than average, better than satisfactory, better than adequate. The average grade, then, is a "C"; a grade of "B" requires effort and accomplishment.

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Daily reading schedule

Sept. 26 class introduction--historicizing "literature" and respecting difference; introduction to Gilgamesh--the purpose of story	Sept. 28 Gilgamesh Read the introduction, entire text, and Appendix C
Oct. 3 Gilgamesh Symbolic meaning: does it transcend history?	Oct. 5 Book of Job Chapters 1-2, 38-42: The meaning of suffering *Gilgamesh (#1) response paper due
Oct. 10 Iliad required passages Anger, violence, war (esp. Books 1 and 5)	Oct. 12 Iliad required passages Helen of Troy (esp. Books 3 and 11) *Book of Job (#2) response paper due
Oct. 17 Iliad required passages The role(s) of the gods (esp. Books 12, 14, 15, 21)	Oct. 19 Iliad required passages Fathers, sons, death, and pity (esp. Book 24) *First formal paper due
Oct. 24 Poetics rhetor vs. grammar	Oct. 26 Women of Troy auctor vs. actor *Iliad (#3) response paper due
Oct. 31 Aeneid Monumental Rome	Nov. 2 Aeneid The triumph of the patriarch
Nov. 7 Aeneid The role of Camilla	Nov. 9 Consolation of Philosophy Fortune and fate *Poetics, Women of Troy or Aeneid (#4) response paper due
Nov.14 Consolation of Philosophy Free will vs. determinism *Second formal paper due	Nov. 16 *Beowulf The heroic age Aeneid or Consolation of Philosophy (#5) response paper due
Nov. 21 Beowulf The death of heroes	Thanksgiving
Nov. 28 Silence, through line 3475 (the undoing of the minstrels) Nature vs. Nurture	Nov. 30 Silence Loyalty, romance, and the court *Beowulf, (#6) response paper due

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Questions for response papers

Gilgamesh: Explore the character of Enkidu. Why do the animals reject Enkidu after he has "intercourse with the harlot" (p. 9)? What does their rejection mean? Why does "understanding" (ibid.) result from Enkidu's episode with the harlot?

Book of Job: Consider God's answers to Job: why are they in the form of questions? What effect does the question mode have on the reader? What relationship with the divine does Job posit? What does Job posit as the goal of a religious life?

Iliad: Why does Homer begin Book 12 with a "flashforward" past the end of the Trojan War? Why is the action continuous between Books 17 and 18? (Back to Reading Schedule)

Poetics: Choose one of Aristotle's most challenging concepts (mimesis, catharsis) and write a modern Poetics from the point of view of Quentin Tarentino.

Women of Troy: Why does the play begin with Poseidon and Athena? How does Euripides use Helen, and what is the effect of her appearance? Whom is Hecuba addressing in her speech at the beginning of the Fifth Episode (p. 494)? Is Hecuba right when she says, in the Third Episode, "Of all those seeming to succeed / count no one happy til he is dead" (p. 479)? Why are these lines not the final lines of the play?

Aeneid Examine Virgil's portrait of Dido, paying careful attention to details. Why does Virgil shape his text's lesson about responsibility and need around the story of a woman and love? What meaning are we to derive from Virgil's choices here?

Consolation of Philosophy What is the purpose of closing Book III with the story of Orpheus? What associations is Boethius counting on? (Back to Reading schedule)

Beowulf Why is the history behind Beowulf's rulership elided by the poet? What does the elision mean to the poem in general? Or. . . What is the significance of Beowulf's death in literary terms?

Silence Compare the Beowulf poet's "understatement" about women's strength (ll. 1282-8, p. 91 in the Heaney translation) with Silence's prayer about his weaker women's nature (lines 5604-10). What do these statements say about women's strength? How does the poet's voice differ in quality from a character's? What meaning could this difference suggest?

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Iliad readings

While it would be ideal for you to read the entire Iliad, you are responsible only for the passages indicated below. Total reading: about 230 pages.

Page numbers	Book #	Line numbers	Description of what's happening
77-98	1	whole thing	Achilles' rage
99-115, 124-6	2	1-572, 866-934	Greeks, Trojans
128-44	3	whole thing	Helen
157	4	405-414	Odysseus
164-94	5	whole thing	Aeneas, Diomedes, gods
203-13	6	288-631	Hector, his family
254-75	9	103 to end	Embassy to Achilles
303-6	11	253-360	Agamemnon, Hector, and "birth pangs"
325-6	12	1-42	post-Trojan war
359-362	13	626-760	injury of Menelaus
374-82	14	187-474	Hera tricks Zeus
387-90, 393-4	15	1-96, 219-238	Gods talk, Zeus commands, Poseidon reacts
437-441	16	874 to end	death of Patroclus
470-1, 483-7	18	91-150, 558 to end	Achilles' despair, description of shield
488-95	19	whole thing	concern about decay, talking horses
532-40	21	435-656	gods fight, warriors think
544-7, 551-8	22	108-221, 341 to end	warriors, gods think; death of Hector
563-4	23	128-184	Patroclus's funeral
588-614	24	whole thing	Achilles and Priam
If you follow this scheme:	Books 1-6, approx. 95 pp.	Books 9-19, approx. 87 pages	Books 21-22, approx. 25 pages

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Boethius and The Consolation of Philosophy (c. 524 C.E.)

What is The Consolation of Philosophy?

The first thing to notice about this text is that it's an "allegory": its characters are both "real" and symbolic. Lady Philosophy's height, touching the very sky with the top of her head, and being lost to human sight indicates that philosophy as a concept goes beyond the human condition and beyond human reason to the realm of the divine.

You may also have noticed how this text, although growing out of a historical narrative (Boethius's imprisonment and subsequent execution on grounds of treason by the emperor, Theoderic), is philosophical in nature, taking for granted the reader's acquaintance with Platonic philosophy. The only Plato you need to know, however, is his theory of Ideas, or Forms, which exist in the mind of the One, or God; and that our material existence is only a shadow of Ideal existence in the Mind. This Platonic outline forms the basis of all Western, Christian philosophical and religious thought.

Notice too that the text is in both prose and poetry. While we may think of philosophy as relegated to the dry textbook, ancient writers thought no such thing. As Bettelheim says (The Uses of Enchantment, p. 35), "Plato--who may have understood better what forms the mind of man than do some of our contemporaries who want their children exposed only to 'real' people and everyday events--knew what intellectual experiences make for true humanity. He suggested that the future citizens of his ideal republic begin their literary education with the telling of myths, rather than with mere facts or so-called rational teachings. Even Aristotle, master of pure reason, said: 'The friend of wisdom is also a friend of myth.'" So one way to evaluate the Consolation is to look at its combination of myth, history, and art and to judge its effect on the reader. How convincing is the Consolation? Does it change your impression of "evil"? How should the individual deal with evil, according to Boethius? What are the questions Boethius doesn't ask?

Outline of The Consolation of Philosophy

BOOK ONE: Introduces narrative situation; introduces Lady Philosophy and her appearance; assumes the world ruled by divine reason

BOOK TWO: The deconstruction of Fortune, describing her nature (note the poem against avarice, Chapter 2) and the transience of worldly goods (Chapter 5); the myth of the golden age (poem at the end Chapter 5--cf. Book 3, Chapter 11); the benefits of adverse fortune and the primum mobile, love (Chapter 8)

BOOK THREE: The deconstruction of worldly goods: riches (Chapter 3), honor (Chapter 4), power (Chapter 5), fame (Chapter 6), bodily pleasure (Chapter 7); supreme good and supreme happiness identified with God (see Chapter 9's invocation to God, Platonic proof and the myth of Orpheus in Chapter 12)

BOOK FOUR: The deconstruction of evil: the evil are unhappy (Chapter 4); the difference between providence and fate

BOOK FIVE:: "the operation of human reason cannot approach the immediacy of divine foreknowledge" (Chapter 4)

From Alan Gaylord, Dartmouth, on Chaucernet, message ID# 01JEPLE23NCK8ZE7LR@OREGON.UOREGON.EDU, August 13, 1999

"To wit (as most know, to be sure): Boethius, though a Christian, undertook the philosophical exercise of making his Consolatio a summary of classical philosophy, without naming Christ or Christian doctrine or citing the Bible (he of course also wrote explicitly Christian theological treatises). So no Cupid, no cupidity or charity (I believe Augustine brought the term, *caritas*, into prominent use). . . .Likewise, "the Wheel of Fortune" does not comprise Boethius's philosophical definition of tragedy; rather, it is a metaphor for the experience of life one attributes to "Fortune" when one lacks sufficient philosophy to understand God's providence. The structure of the Consolatio is to begin with soft or sweet medicines, common language, and the doxa of false philosophy and to deconstruct these during the first three books of the work. But Books 4 & 5 are severely dialectic; Fortune is vaporized as a concept and a non-reality; and Boethius is led to see that by putting their loves on false goods, humans derive a false picture of causality and a false teleology. Boethius does not quite put it that way, but the only "real" tragedy from a philosophical standpoint would be to contumaciously resist the instructions of Philosophy . . . ."

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This page created by Louise M. Bishop | Last updated 24 September 2000